Kings Theatre

1027 Flatbush Avenue,

Brooklyn,
NY11226

Everything in New York costs more. It just does. Always has, but it hasn’t stopped the city from building and building big. It is why it still retains (along with Los Angles) the greatest collection of movie palaces in the country (perhaps the world). Brooklyn (as well as New York) is booming and is the home of 2.6MM people whose only performing arts centers are The Opera House and The Harvey Theater (both at the Brooklyn Academy of Music) and the Brooklyn College Performing Arts Center. There is room for more and the Kings will succeed. I’m from Manhattan and I will be going for sure.

Hate to complain but $93 Million? A new high-tech Boeing 737 goes for $89 Million. Exorbitant amount and I still have my doubts about the financial viability of the restored Kings. Something’s not right here.

For all of the perennial naysayers, YES, it is happening and it is bigger than ever before! The official groundbreaking to this morning! The renovation is now a $94MM project which will open in 2015!
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/loew-article-1.1245330?localLinksEnabled=false

The Fox must have had a larger stage then the King’s and was used much more often which in turn created $$$$$. Probably if more thought was given, Loew’s would have only built the Paradise in the Bronx since they had the Met and other screens in Brookyln. Maybe ACE looked at the profits of the newly re-opened Paradise and had second thoughts especially after the Barclays debut. But not to mention the Kings in that article about Brooklyn in the dailynews leads me to believe it never did very well profitwise.

Not to belabor the point, but if the comment being referred to is this one of April 26, 2011 at barbrasteisand.com, the only thing she says about ice cream is that “[the Kings] had…great ice cream cones.” Perhaps they were like a local version of Drumsticks.

Also she mentioned how wonderful the ice cream treats were at the Kings. Many flavors and generous portions. How great would it be if she did a first night benfit for continued preservation of this glorious movie palace!

It is not a question of whether a developer “knows about” the process and the steps involved (I am sure that ACE does, as it is completing work on the Saenger restoration in New Orleans and that was certainly comparably complicated), it is that the process and time required is notoriously unpredictable, because of the fact the various agencies operate independently and often autonomously; in some cases, when an applicant’s plans are disapproved or sent back for changes, the process has to be restarted with one or more of the other agencies.

I still don’t understand the snails pace at which things move these days. It probably took less time for George and C.W. Rapp to design the entire building back in 1928 than it’s taking to figure out the renovation today. And I’ll bet it took only around 10-14 months to build the Kings. But, I will shut up and just be patient.

Even if the Uptown gets the money next year, I doubt it will open by 2015. This stuff takes time. Last I heard (and it was confirmed by the Ditmas Park Corner) ACE is still trying to figure out the best way to replicate the decor of the theater.